West Fargo was a different place when Rich Mattern moved to town in 1979.

Back then, it was actually two towns: West Fargo and Riverside. It was distinctly blue collar.

";It was meat packing and strippers,"; says Mattern, West Fargo's mayor since 2002. ";It had what most people would perceive as a rough and tumble reputation.";

A quarter-century later, the packing plants are closed, the strippers are outlawed and the town is distinctly middle class.

It is a new West Fargo.

";I think we've done 180 degrees,"; said Police Chief Arland Rasmussen, who arrived in 1976. ";If you drive around West Fargo now, you see very nice homes, affluent, professional people.";

The median household income in West Fargo, at $44,542, is higher than in North Dakota and nationally.

The city of 20,000 has come a long way from its start with the construction of a packing plant in 1917.

For years, it was actually two towns with evolving names. In 1989 West Fargo, the town south of Main Avenue, merged with Riverside, the town north of Main Avenue.

Rasmussen thinks the Charleswood neighborhood has something to do with the new West Fargo.

Bruce Clapham bought land on the east side of town in 1993 and started developing it soon after.

";The attitude used to be 'Oh, you can't build a house over $100,000 in West Fargo,' "; Clapham said.

Charleswood now has 800 homes built around curving streets and cul-de-sacs, with bike paths and ponds. At least one home could sell for $1 million, Clapham said, though no homes in West Fargo have been assessed at that price.

Shortly after Charleswood took shape, commercial development sprang up along 13th Avenue.

Dorinda Anderson, the city business development director, said she sees more interest in the community than there was 10 years ago.

But as West Fargo grows, the city wants to keep its small-town atmosphere.

";I think one of the great things about West Fargo is that you can get on the phone and call your commissioners,"; Mattern said. ";We still are in that mode.";

Some of the credit for making West Fargo feel like a small town should go to the school system, Rasmussen and Mattern said.

West Fargo is still a one-high-school town, and the community rallies around it. Vehicles boast decals proclaiming the occupants as Packer Backers or parents of Packhatanas, the local dance team.

";We're still small enough where a lot, a lot of things still center around the high school,"; Mattern said.

But with all the growth, a second high school is a possibility.

In 2007, the school district plans to open a ninth-grade center south of Interstate 94.

Eventually, it could be expanded to a high school, though no decisions have been made, said West Fargo High School Principal Gary Clark, who started his teaching career in West Fargo in 1971.

Members of a committee convened to study the school system's growth problems were dismayed at the thought of a second school, Clark said.

Rasmussen thinks West Fargo's unified community could split as people move in.

";I don't know how long we can keep it this way,"; he said.

He predicts several communities will emerge within West Fargo rather than the cohesive unit it is now.

Mattern said he isn't sure at what point West Fargo will cease to be a small town.

";That small-town feel means a lot,"; he said. ";The longer we can keep that up, the better.";

Readers can reach Forum reporter

Andrea Domaskin at (701) 241-5556